Late last month, Google initiated the latest string of updates to its algorithm. Code-named “Panda 3.3″, there were a slew of revisions to the way Google interprets data on a website because, according to Google, they want to be “more accurate and more sensitive to recent changes on the web.”

The major updates to Google’s algorithm include:

• The ranking of videos on Google’s YouTube platform. Google now says that searches on YouTube will return more locally relevant results.

• An update to image search. Google says they can now show “fresher” images in search results. This means that adding high resolution, optimally tagged images to a webpage will get it crawled and indexed in a quicker fashion. So if you have a news blog, for instance, a sharp image used on a recent and popular news post will enhance factors such as user experience and organic traffic to the page.

• Improved snippets for video pages. As detailed in a recent MoreVisibility YouTube Video Series, Google now supports rich snippet data for video content, as it may display an image of the video within the description snippet in search results if correctly coded with rich markup.

These changes, as usual, simply reinforce standard SEO best practices. Page elements, such as optimized and interesting content, clean web coding and geo-targeting will only help to improve user experience and your website’s overall search performance in the long run.

Pinterest, a virtual pinboard for collecting images and links to content in various categories from food to fashion, has gained a staggering amount of popularity in the past six months.  Many businesses are noticing the name Pinterest showing up on their referral reports and for some ecommerce sites, Pinterest is referring converting traffic.  This blog post covers a few basics about Pinterest and how you can check what your brand’s current presence is on the channel before you decide on your next steps.

One quick way to see what may come up for your brand in relation to Pinterest is to enter the following into a search engine, such as Google:

site:pinterest.com brand

The following example focuses on Vera Bradley, a large ecommerce site that offers fashionable quilted items such as purses or travel bags.  Upon typing the query into Google, the search results deliver quite a bit of knowledge.  The first entry (pinterest.com/source/verabradley.com/) is perhaps the most important.  This entry, once clicked, will display all of the pins currently on Pinterest, which were sourced from verabradley.com.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=site%3Apinterest.com%20vera%20bradley&pbx=1&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=9e4eefe6b4a13bd8&biw=1280&bih=933&pf=p&pdl=3000

Upon clicking the first link in the organic search results above (pinterest.com/source/verabradley.com/), you see what is popular from verabradley.com on Pinterest in real time.  By monitoring the pins sourced from your website, you can determine what items are popular and being shared, commented on, or liked right now.  In Vera Bradley’s case, the popular patterns and styles can be seen below.

http://pinterest.com/source/verabradley.com/

Upon clicking the second link in the search results, you see an individual user account, in this case the account beaucat who seems to love a particular pattern:

http://pinterest.com/beaucat/vera-bradley/

Upon clicking on any of the pins in a board, the following detailed view is available:

http://pinterest.com/pin/168392473536805015/

Pinterest is a fascinating community of individuals pinning and sharing products, photos, and other images that they have found online and on other’s pinboards.  By checking your company and brand presence on the channel, you can better gauge where you stand now and what your strategy might be for this channel in the future.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact MoreVisibility or request a Social Media Strategy consultation.

There’s a lot of buzz in the media about mobile devices and many businesses have made an effort to create a mobile website. However, just having a single version of your mobile website isn’t enough. A company’s mobile website should be functional and user friendly across multiple mobile devices and their platforms.

Let’s talk about functionality first. It’s safe to say that not all smartphones are created equal. When creating a mobile website, it’s good to keep in mind that your website isn’t being built for one particular mobile device, as iPhones, blackberrys, and android phones will be all accessing your website. In order for your website to appear correctly on various mobile device screens it’s important to make the necessary adjustments in the interworkings of the website. It is also imperative that simulated tests be done with various mobile devices to confirm that it appears the correct way. For example: ask a few employees at your place of business to pull up your website on their phone and give their feedback on how it appears.

Mobile websites should be easy to navigate and allow users to get to the information they want quickly. No one wants to scroll forever to find a link or read an encyclopedia to find a simple answer. On mobile websites, the motto to follow is short and sweet. Another tidbit is to make sure the phone number is readily accessible on all pages. After all, they are on their cell phone.

Mobile devices aren’t going anywhere and their usage is increasing. If your company doesn’t want to get left behind, now’s the time to make the change.  Consider creating a mobile website or improving the functionality and user friendliness of your current one.